Practitioner Content Marketing Archives

Show Me the Code: Creating Content for Developers

Introduction If you are advertising to developers, marketing to developers, or if you’re in developer relations (DevRel), you have probably noticed you are messaging to a group of highly intelligent skeptics who are low on patience for any intrusion in their world that doesn’t deliver value. When creating content for developers, keeping this in mind ensures your content gets consumed instead of ignored. If your developer advertising delivers all message, with no relevant technical content, then to the skeptic, you’re as good as a company without a product. A message that says, “buy my product,” “use my platform,” or [...]

Show Me the Code: Creating Content for Developers2023-03-06T10:11:07-05:00

Developer Marketing Resolution: Promote Your Content in Newsletters

The modern developer loves newsletters. Developers click on newsletter links. Are pigs flying? Did hell freeze over? Nope. Developers like to receive information about the tools and services they can use in their developer-to-developer communities, pure and simple. Say it loud, say it proud, because it’s just true. Developers Like Newsletters Who says? Well, besides the comments we received when we interviewed developers, Evans Data Corporation—that’s who. Evans Data Corporation Developer Marketing 2018 survey data showed that more than 40% of developers subscribe to three to five newsletters. Only 5% said they subscribed to none. That means 90% of developers [...]

Developer Marketing Resolution: Promote Your Content in Newsletters2023-03-06T10:10:27-05:00

Developer Marketing Resolution: Stop Over Infogating Content

What do modern developers do? Thanks to devops, more and more. In fact, your modern developer may even be an IT operations professional acting like a developer. Bottom line: your audience and your customers are BUSY. So when you make them fill out multiple fields, or give them the chance to hesitate about how their information will be used when they want to access your content, you risk losing them. The most egregious violation? Asking them for their phone number. Just don’t. Infogating – How Much is Okay? What the Data Shows Based on Evans Data Corporation’s Developer Marketing 2017 [...]

Developer Marketing Resolution: Stop Over Infogating Content2023-03-06T10:10:23-05:00

Technical Content Marketing ROI: It Doesn’t Have to Hurt to Work

Technical content marketing is hard, and it can hurt — perhaps badly enough that you’ve given up on executing your technical content marketing strategy. Listen: “no pain, no gain” is for exercise, not content marketing. Technical content marketing doesn’t have to hurt to be effective. Check out the six pain points decreasing your technical content marketing ROI, and learn how to get your content marketing strategy working, without hurting. What Pain Points Do to Your ROI Savvy content marketers have a handle on their costs and more than a clue about the benefits. Excluding the cost of putting together [...]

Technical Content Marketing ROI: It Doesn’t Have to Hurt to Work2023-03-06T10:10:22-05:00

Developer Marketing Resolution: Andify Your Practitioner Content Marketing Strategy

Tempted to look for the content marketing silver bullet to reach the modern developer? Here’s a news flash: there really isn’t one. If you’re struggling to select the most powerful type of content to influence or inspire your developer audience and prospects, it’s because the right answer for your practitioner content marketing strategy (or any strategy) isn’t “or.” It’s almost always “and.” Practitioner Content Marketing Creating an authentic voice in the fragmented market of tools and services for the modern developer can be challenging. Practitioner content marketing uses the voice of developer and IT practitioners outside your company. This voice [...]

Developer Marketing Resolution: Andify Your Practitioner Content Marketing Strategy2023-03-06T10:10:21-05:00

Developer Marketing Resolution: Tie your content marketing strategy to a promotion strategy

You are trying to drive modern developer engagement, correct? If you are looking for ads or content marketing alone to inspire this development (*snicker*), then you’ll be disappointed. The best way to engage the modern developer is with compelling content. But, without a promotion strategy, those developers may never know your content exists. Content + Promotion: A Winning Combination According to Evans Data Corporation’s Developer Marketing 2017 survey results, we know that the modern developer clicks through links to content advertised on newsletters from D2D communities. When we interviewed developers, we learned that they are lifelong learners who are [...]

Developer Marketing Resolution: Tie your content marketing strategy to a promotion strategy2023-03-06T10:10:20-05:00

The Dirty Word for Technical Content Marketing

C’mon. You know it. You’ve heard it. You’ve snickered at it, maybe even blushed. If you take pride in your job, you’ve even taken umbrage at it. And for technical marketing, it’s bandied about even more freely. “Lies” You’ve got it. “Lies.” The dirty word. “Marketing is a lie.” “Marketing lies to you.” Say it however you like. You can use a ten-dollar world like “manipulate” or try to dress it up to “persuade.” But like it or not, distrust is the underlying objection to marketing in general and technical content marketing in particular. With public trust in social [...]

The Dirty Word for Technical Content Marketing2023-03-06T10:09:55-05:00

The Secret to Technical Content Marketing Stardom

You are a consummate professional. You can create a content marketing strategy for all occasions — go to market, incremental growth, you name it. And you know how to get it done. You are getting it done, but it is taking more of your time than you thought, and resources can be scarce or unreliable. Particularly the human kind — the writers. Because your market is a skeptical technical audience, well, you can’t get away with faking technical expertise. But, technical experts with time to write are hard to come by — in or out of your organization. Practitioner [...]

The Secret to Technical Content Marketing Stardom2023-03-06T10:09:53-05:00

How to Produce Popular Developer Tutorials

Tutorials are by far and away the most popular technical content for developers to consume and share. So, clearly, if you are marketing to developers with any hope of success, tutorials are on your content marketing playlist. But they are also on your competitors’. So what does it take to make a popular developer tutorial? Thanks to Evans Data Corporation and their Developer Marketing 2019 report, we have 3 (ok, maybe 4) hot, hot tips. Lights, Camera, ACTION! So it helps if it’s a video, not too long, and with information that’s easy to find. Their survey indicates that developers [...]

How to Produce Popular Developer Tutorials2023-03-06T10:09:52-05:00

How to Produce the Best Public Documentation

A recent CodeProject survey showed that the biggest impediment to learning a new technology was poor documentation. When Evans Data Corp asked an even wider audience of developers why they had rejected proposed and even purchased tools in the last year, as many developers cited a lack of adequate documentation as did cite poor integration with their existing environment (28%). When the modern developer, IT professional, or DevOps engineer is trying to learn or evaluate a new technology or tool, public documentation is among the content they use to inform themselves. They also use public documentation to help them [...]

How to Produce the Best Public Documentation2023-03-06T10:09:50-05:00